It'sJustSomeRandomGuy (video series)
ItsJustSomeRandomGuy is a YouTube channel created by Michael Agrusso, an American voice acting teacher, writer, and performer working and living in Los Angeles, California, and his girlfriend, Brinna Li (also called ItsJustSomeRandomGal), whom he met at UCLA. The channel is the source of the YouTube video parody series, "Hi, I'm a Marvel...and I'm a DC", which spoofs the Macintosh "Hi, I'm a Mac...and I'm a PC" Get a Mac television commercials. Reception and popularity As of March 3, 2009, over 68,900 YouTube users were subscribed to the channel and its videos had been viewed over 25.3 million times, ranking it as the 31st most subscribed comedy, and the 29th most viewed comedy channel on YouTube of all time; the channel's first video has been viewed over 3.2 million times. An official press release by New York Comic Con via Comic Book Resources called Agrusso "a genuine Internet superstar." In July 2008, q4music.com ranked one of the channel's videos as one of the top ten YouTube videos of the month. Several online magazines such as Wonderland Stream magazine, Comic Book Resources, Newsarama, Comic Mix, and SpoutBlog have posted interviews with Agrusso, the channel's creator. Several others have reviewed, researched, and written articles about the channel, giving it even wider exposure. In fact, the channel became so popular that Joe Leo, a columnist for the Apple's advertising strategic partner, PowerBook Central, took note and wrote an article in his column about it. Although Agrusso does not work for Marvel, Marvel.com has a featured blog that shows the videos and posts their interviews with him. In March 2008, Marvel gave him the rights to use their characters in promotional videos for New York Comic Con 2008. The channel re-invents the personalities of several comic book characters, including the Green Goblin. On October 1, 2008, Iron Man director Jon Favreau mentioned ItsJustSomeRandomGuy's work in a Los Angeles Times live chat: "I LOVE the Marvel/DC YouTube bits on Iron Man and Dark Knight. Awesome. The Marvel guys love them too." The channel primarily discusses comic book films from the two major comic book companies (Marvel and DC) using humor. Agrusso writes, performs, and shoots his videos at home with Li's help. Since the channel's first video in March 2007, several other successful Marvel/DC video series have been created, as well as promotional videos for a major comic book convention, which also gave Agrusso his own discussion panel to talk about the channel. Several external websites have posted its videos on their own webpages. History The Beginning In late February/early March 2007, Agrusso read the Internet news that the films based on The Flash (DC) and Wonder Woman (DC) both lost their directors due to creative differences with Warner Brothers on the same day. In contrast, Marvel comic book films had several future projects in production. He later saw a "Get a Mac" commercial, which gave him the idea to make a parody using Marvel and DC. Marvel vs. DC (Two plastic dolls and a white sheet) Agrusso first wrote the scripts for four videos, using two characters, Spider-Man (Marvel) and Superman (DC), as their companies' representatives. He and Li filmed action figures in real time against a white sheet using the iSight camera on Agrusso's Mac notebook. They filmed the first video in an hour, and did the editing and voice work in another hour. On March 6, 2007, he created the ItsJustSomeRandomGuy channel on YouTube, and posted the first video. After posting the first four videos throughout March 2007, the channel posted six more videos in the subsequent months, also introducing other Marvel and DC characters: the Hulk (Marvel), Batman (DC), Uncle Ben (Marvel), Jor-El (DC), Wolverine (Marvel), the Green Goblin (Marvel), Lex Luthor (DC), the Fantastic Four (Marvel), and the Silver Surfer (Marvel), as well as original characters: Lance (the bartender) and an unnamed referee. "Hi, I'm a Marvel...and I'm Batman", in which Batman first appears, is one of the channel's most viewed videos. The birth of After Hours Fearing the "Hi, I'm a Marvel" format would get old and repetitive, Agrusso and Li introduced a Heroes' Bar setting for their characters in their sixth and eighth Marvel vs. DC videos. They later abandoned the "Hi, I'm a Marvel" format altogether and started a new video series: After Hours. The first three After Hours episodes allowed Agrusso to expand his cast with characters from other comic book movie adaptations, including Iron Man (Marvel), Professor X (Marvel), Magneto (Marvel), Batgirl (DC), Daredevil (Marvel), Punisher (Marvel), Blade (Marvel), Nightwing (DC), Robin (DC), Terry McGinnis/Batman Beyond (DC), and Ghost Rider (Marvel). The last four episodes introduced several movie villains: the Joker (DC), Harley Quinn (DC), Sabretooth (Marvel), Venom (Marvel), Doctor Doom (Marvel), Poison Ivy (DC), Sandman (Marvel), Pyro (Marvel), Juggernaut (Marvel), Two-Face (DC), Catwoman (DC), the Penguin (DC), and other heroes and characters, including Nick Fury (Marvel), Ultimate Nick Fury (Marvel), Marvel creator Stan Lee, Spawn (Image Comics), Hellboy (Dark Horse), and Marv from Sin City (Dark Horse). The ending of After Hours #3 revealed a plot and set up the rest of the 7-part series as a complex and serious storyline in which Lex Luthor attempts to prevent Stan Lee from creating the Marvel Universe. Each subsequent episode became longer in playing time; the last two had to be cut up into two parts and posted separately. The saga also explored new settings, most notably the wood-themed Villains Hangout. Comic Con 2007 Between After Hours #4 and #5, Agrusso informed fans that he was attending Comic Con 2007. There, representatives from Marvel.com approached him and Li and interviewed them. Afterwards, on August 14, Marvel.com posted the videotaped interview on their website. Concurrently, Agent M, an official Marvel.com blogger, also interviewed Agrusso and posted the channel's first video along with the interview transcript onto his blog. Since then, Agent_M has posted six other videos from Agrusso's channel. Goblin Starts Bloggin' In the interim period between After Hours #5 and #6, Agrusso created a new spin-off for the Green Goblin character. Titled Goblin Bloggin', it parodies Internet bloggers, as the Green Goblin rants about his life and relationships, and responds to emails. Agrusso set up a real hotmail account specifically for fans to write emails to the fake blog: goblinbloggin@hotmail.com. He posted Goblin Bloggin' #2 between After Hours #6 and #7 on October 7, 2007, and Goblin Bloggin' #3 between Happy Hour #1 and #2 on July 6, 2008. Christmas 2007 On December 2, 2007, the channel posted a holiday-themed video that strayed from the humorous tone of their videos with a theme of giving and receiving gifts. Based on Clement Clark Moore's poem, "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," Agrusso originally wrote it as a Christmas present to Li in December 2006. The video was featured on YouTube's main page for weeks. The advent of Happy Hour More than two months after the last After Hours episode, which hinted at a second season with the Joker, Agrusso posted a promo video on January 27, 2008 for Happy Hour, the channel's second video series with a storyline. The promo has nothing to do with the real Happy Hour storyline. Three months later, on April 19, 2008, Happy Hour #1 debuted at the 2008 New York Comic Con and was posted on the channel hours later. Then the series would go on a five-month hiatus, as the summer of 2008 began. New York Comic Con 2008: ItsJustSomeRandomPanel A month after the Happy Hour promo was released, Agrusso released news on the channel on February 19, 2008, that he was hired by the New York Comic Con to make promotional videos for their event in April 2008. However, he could not post them unless he got the rights from Marvel and DC.[ Two days later, he posted his first of three Marvel-centric promotional videos, indicating that Marvel supported and permitted him to post his videos with their characters. He posted the other two videos during the next two months before the event. On April 11, 2008, a week before the convention, Agrusso released more news that NYCC scheduled a live panel for him to premiere his first episode Happy Hour and talk with fans. The panel on April 19, 2008, called "ItsJustSomeRandomPanel", began with an opening montage, which compiled clips from his videos. (This video was posted on the channel later that night.) Agrusso officially started with a confession that he forgot to buy a second airline ticket for Li, his girlfriend. Instead, he showed a video of her greeting to the fans, in which Li explains her important role in making the videos and guilt-tripped Agrusso in the process. This, too, was posted on the channel that night. Agrusso continued the presentation with the DC-centric promo videos he made for the convention. At the request of DC, he was not allowed to post them on the channel, and for the most part, the Internet public has not seen them. He then described Happy Hour as a series with actual sets, special effects and bigger storylines, but retaining the same humor. Then he showed the two-part Happy Hour #1. He later posted these videos as well, posting an unprecedented total 4 videos in one night. Following the videos, there was a short Q&A session. The following is a summary of what Agrusso said: * Agrusso made no money from the videos because that "opens up a legal can of worms". * He did get paid for doing the promos for NYCC. * He was open to doing ads for action figure companies and going outside the Marvel and DC lines * As to whether he's been asked to write any comic books, he would not comment. * All of his videos are done on his Mac computer. * He does all the male characters' voices himself. * He uses a ThorBuster Iron Man because "it was the best-looking Iron Man figure at the used toy store I shop at." He did not know it was Thorbuster armor. He told fans to wait for an upgraded Iron Man, once the movie-based figures are on sale. * Happy Hour is the future of his video production efforts, again citing his fear of a revisited "Hi, I'm a Marvel" format getting stale. * His Green Goblin video blog, "Goblin Bloggin'" will also continue. * As to how the videos are made, Agrusso used a movie analogy: "I'd be like a writer/director" (and voice actor). Li does everything else: cinematography, props, and costumes; deserving more credit than fans might realize. * Batman and Spider-Man make a great, unlikely comic duo: his Spider-Man is geeky, while Batman is everything Spidey hopes to be: "cool, rich and driving cars." Green Goblin and Lex Luthor have a similar dynamic. * As for ItsJustSomeRandomGuy leaving YouTube to start his own site: "I'd love to do the same thing with banner ads and get paid for this." However, it exposes him to legal issues if he makes a profit. Marvel vs. DC 2.0 In the summer of 2008, five superhero movie blockbusters opened: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Hancock, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and The Dark Knight. In response, Agrusso created a second "Hi, I'm a Marvel" series, this time with Iron Man (Marvel), the Hulk (Marvel), Batman (DC) and Hellboy (Dark Horse) instead of Spider-Man and Superman. The series spanned across the duration of the summer as the new superhero movies opened. The return of Happy Hour On October 3, 2008, over five months since the debut of Happy Hour #1, Agrusso posted Happy Hour #2. The reason for the time gap was that Agrusso and Li went back to the "Hi, I'm a Marvel" format during the 2008 summer movie season, making seven videos in that time. On November 5, 2008, Agrusso posted Happy Hour #3. On January 15, 2009, Agrusso posted Happy Hour #4. In the video information section, he posted this message: "To Be Concluded at the New York Comic Con on February 7 at 4:00 on ItsJustSomeRandomGuy's Panel! Premiering online afterwards!" On February 8, 2009, Happy Hour #5 debuted at the 2009 New York Comic Con and was posted on the channel hours later. This concluded the Happy Hour storyline. Ontario PGA Golf Merchandise Show On October 16, 2008, Agrusso posted this message on the ItsJustSomeRandomGuy channel: "We got hired to make a video for the Ontario PGA Golf Merchandise Show! Check it out in my favorites!" He then added a video to the "Favorites" section on the channel, which promotes the aforementioned event. Although the video was posted by the ONTPGA YouTube channel on August 27, 2008, the video is clearly Agrusso's and Li's work, as it is in the same format as his other videos (live-action figurines voiced by Agrusso). While he does not use any Marvel or DC action figures, there is a cameo appearance by Agrusso's original character, Lance M. Donovan. ItsJustSomeRandomStore: Audio Commentaries On November 13, 2008, Agrusso posted the channel's 50th video, which promotes a new website that he and Li set up. The site allows users to purchase mp3 downloads of audio commentaries that Agrusso and Li recorded to go along with their YouTube videos. There are commentaries for the "After Hours" season, the "Goblin Bloggin'" series, and the two "Hi, I'm a Marvel" series. The purpose of selling the commentaries was for Agrusso and Li to make some money without copyright infringement. New York Comic Con 2009: ItsJustSomeRandomPanel 2.0 Agrusso was again hired by the New York Comic Con to make promotional videos for their event in February 2009. On December 18, 2008, December 31, 2008, January 13, 2009, January 21, 2009, and January 28, 2009, he posted five more Marvel-centric promotional videos, the second of which parodies the MasterCard "priceless" television commercials. In addition to the promotional videos, NYCC again scheduled a panel for Agrusso and Li, this time to premiere the season finale of Happy Hour, more new videos, and hold a Q&A session. Rise in Popularity: Twitter, Collaboration, BlogTV, and YouTube Partnership In February 2009, Agrusso and Li took several intentional steps to connect with fans of ItsJustSomeRandomGuy. They created a Twitter account so that fans could be more easily updated about their activities, they collaborated with another parody video maker, The Fine Brothers, by voicing Batman in their Lost parody series, and on February 24, 2009, they hosted a live Q&A session on blogTV to answer questions from fans who could not be at New York Comic Con 2009. On February 24, 2009, immediately after their live Q&A session via blogTV, Agrusso and Li recorded a 10-minute video on blogTV, allowing for anyone who missed the session to view a sampling of it. As of March 28, 2009, the video has been viewed over 11,830 times. On February 26, 2009, Agrusso submitted a request to YouTube that ItsJustSomeRandomGuy be a YouTube partner channel, and it was promptly accepted. As a partner, Agrusso and Li now receive a share in revenue for advertisements seen during their videos, and they also have partner privileges, such as the automatic play of a video, the ability to post more than three playlists on their channel, and the distribution of their videos to "the largest worldwide online video community" via YouTube and its syndication partners. On March 26, 2009, Agrusso posted a short video announcing that he and Li would begin broadcasting weekly live chat sessions on blogTV, every Tuesday night starting on March 31, 2009. Marvel vs. DC 3.0 2009 saw the opening of Watchmen and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. In response, Agrusso started a third "Hi, I'm a Marvel" series with Wolverine, Sabretooth and Cyclops representing Marvel and Rorschach, Doctor Manhattan, The Comedian and Nite Owl representing DC. The first video was posted on March 4, 2009, the second was posted on March 13, 2009, and the third was posted on March 23, 2009. Videography "Hi, I'm a Marvel...and I'm a DC." (21 videos) * Round One (10 videos) - Spider-Man, Superman, Batman, and other Marvel and DC characters talk about their film adaptations, parodying the Get a Mac commercials. * Round Two (7 videos) - Iron Man, Hulk, Batman, and Hellboy discuss their respective film adaptations debuting in the summer of 2008. * Round Three (currently 4 videos) - Wolverine and Cyclops debates with various Watchmen characters about their two movies. Marvel/DC Season 1: After Hours (9 videos) * After Hours #1-4 (4 videos) - Characters from Marvel and DC movies drink, chat, and feud with each other at a "heroes\\' bar." It is revealed that Lex Luthor is plotting something with Lance M. Donovan, the bartender. * The Beginning of the End of the End of the Beginning (5 videos) - Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man combat the plot by Lex Luthor to destroy the Marvel Universe. Goblin Bloggin' (3 videos) * A video blog featuring the Green Goblin, concurrent with the events of After Hours and Happy Hour. 'Twas the Dark Knight Before Christmas (1 video) * A parody of the poem A Visit from St. Nicholas ("\\'Twas the night before Christmas...") featuring Batman and Santa Claus. Marvel/DC Season 2: Happy Hour (8 videos) * Season 2 Promo (1 video) - A trailer for a "Parker and Wayne" movie in which Spider-Man and Batman team up, which turns out to be Spider-Man dreaming. * Happy Hour (7 videos) - Batman, Spider-Man, and the Green Goblin team up to combat a plot by The Joker to turn all Marvel and DC superheroes into dark, homicidal vigilantes. New York Comic Con (11 videos) * Promotional videos **2008 Promos (3 videos) - Three promos featuring Doctor Doom, Spider-Man, the Hulk, Iron Man, and the Green Goblin. **2009 Promos (5 videos) - Five promos featuring various Marvel superheroes and villains. **ItsJustSomeRandomPanel (3 videos) **Opening Montage - A montage of video clips from previous videos used as an introduction for Agrusso's panel at NYCC 2008. **RandomGal's Greeting 2008 - Li explains her role in making ItsJustSomeRandomGuy's videos. **RandomGal's Greeting 2009 - Li talks about herself, her role in making ItsJustSomeRandomGuy\\'s videos, and their cat. Ontario PGA Golf Merchandise Show (1 video) * A promotional video in which two golf fanatics act like golf commentators in mundane situations.44 Characters Main * Spiderman * Superman * Batman * Green Goblin * Lex Luthor * Joker * Lance M. Donovan Major * Professor Xavier * Magneto * Wolverine * Iron Man * The Hulk * Harley Quinn * Nick Fury and Ultimate Nick Fury * Doctor Doom Minor * Ghost Rider * Punisher * Batgirl * Nightwing * Robin * Fantastic Four * Venom * Poison Ivy * Sandman * Wonder Woman Music Original music Agrusso uses the GarageBand program on his computer to create much of the background music for his videos. He has composed a few pieces of music: * The major theme behind most of Agrusso's videos is a simple three-chord progression that utilizes a synthesized piano and imitates the background of the "Hi, I'm a Mac" commercials. * The opening music for After Hours #4 is techno piece that Agrusso composed. He later released a full version with audio snippets from past videos on YouTube. Running Gags on Videos * Green Goblin would talk about Harley Quinn. * Green Goblin is obsessed with Willem Dafoe * Batman doesn't refer to himself as a DC (with the exception of "Iron Man and Batman #4) * When asked why he has meow mix in his pocket, Batman would mutter," It's personal" (possibly hinting Catwoman.) * Spider-Man would try and beg Batman to drive the Tumbler Batmobile, but he decides not to anymore because of the scary ride he took to save Batman from Joker. * Wolverine hates Superman because he thinks he stole their director (Brian Singer). * Nick Fury hates Ultimate Nick Fury because of Samuel L. Jackson being cast in the Iron Man movie. * Sometimes when a superhero or villain gets drunk, they ask for Cocoa Puffs * When Spider-man is seen in the heroes bar he always has a pink milkshake (it is revealed it is like this to show how young Peter Parker is). * Sometimes Batman asks someone to grab something out of his pocket.They reach and grab and Batman yells "That's not a pocket!". * Batman is often called "Bats" as use of a nickname. * Superman is often called "Supes". * The Green Goblin is often called "Gobs" or "Gobby".